MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST APRIL 26, 2025 BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
Read My Utmost for His Highest April 26, 2025 (Oswald Chambers Devotional) Saturday Inspirational Message.
TOPIC: Supreme Devotion
Take your son. . . . Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. — Genesis 22:2
Character determines how a person interprets God’s will. When Abraham received the command to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering, Abraham interpreted it to mean that God wanted Isaac put
to death; he was convinced of it. And yet when God sent an angel to stay his hand, Abraham obeyed. This is the great point of Abraham’s faith: he was prepared to do anything for God, even something that went against his own beliefs. If Abraham had placed his beliefs over his devotion to God, he would have slain Isaac, then claimed that the voice of the angel who came to stop him was the voice of the devil (Genesis 22:11). That is the reasoning of a fanatic.
It took the pain of a tremendous ordeal to set Abraham right. God couldn’t purify his faith in any other way. If we obey what God says according to our sincere beliefs, God will break us from beliefs that misrepresent him. There are many traditional beliefs that misrepresent God—for instance, the belief that God permits the death of a child because the mother loves the child too much. This is a devil’s lie, and a travesty of the true nature of God.
If we remain true to God, he will lead us straight through every barrier into the inner chamber of knowledge of himself. The devil will always try to hold us back. There will always be a point along the way where we must give up sincere beliefs and traditions. Don’t ask God to test you. Don’t declare that you’ll never fail him. Abraham didn’t make declarations. He simply remained true to God, and God purified his faith.
FURTHER READING: 2 Samuel 23-24; Luke 19:1-27
Wisdom from Oswald
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ.
My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R